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Boehner promises fight over debt limit

In GOP caucus, speaker repeats vow to get $1 in cuts for each $1 borrowed

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoSusan Walsh | AP photoNewly re-elected Speaker John Boehner and his GOP allies in the Senate are setting up a repeat of the budget wars that defined the last Congress and led to a cycle of brinkmanship and crisis.

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WASHINGTON — In the first private meeting of the Republican House majority in the new Congress,
newly re-elected Speaker John Boehner yesterday promised a robust fight with President Barack Obama
to cut spending in exchange for raising the nation’s debt limit.

The Republican from West Chester doubled down on his insistence that there must be at least a
dollar-for-dollar match between spending reductions and continued borrowing.

“With the cliff behind us, the focus turns to spending,” Boehner said, according to a source in
the room who requested anonymity to discuss the private meeting. “The president says he isn’t going
to have a debate with us over the debt ceiling. He also says he’s not going to cut spending along
with the debt-limit hike.”

On the heels of the divisive “fiscal cliff” battle over the automatic tax increases and spending
cuts that briefly went into effect at the beginning of the year, Boehner is launching a new budget
fight.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner notified Congress this week that the nation already has hit
its $16 trillion debt limit, and Congress will be asked to raise the borrowing authority to
continue paying the nation’s bills. Geithner can take temporary measures to pay creditors for
several weeks.

Without lifting the debt limit, the federal government would face a cataclysmic default on its
already-accrued obligations — akin to stopping payments on a mortgage or credit-card debt.

Boehner and his GOP allies in the Senate, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are
setting up a repeat of the budget wars that defined the last Congress and led to a cycle of
brinkmanship and crisis.

McConnell made similar remarks in the Senate as the new Congress was sworn in.

In convening rank-and-file Republicans yesterday morning, a day after the new Congress began its
session, the speaker also released new polling from a Republican-aligned firm that showed
overwhelming public support for Boehner’s demand of a 1-to-1 ratio of cuts to new borrowing.

The Winston Group poll found 72 percent support for the so-called Boehner principle.

Past polling, however, has shown that public enthusiasm for spending cuts wanes as specific
programs — including health care, transportation and education — are designated for cuts, as they
have been by Republicans in the past, particularly under the austerity budget from Rep. Paul Ryan,
R-Wis., the former vice-presidential nominee.

Boehner made his vows after having narrowly won re-election as speaker despite defections from
10 conservatives, who make up the majority of the House GOP.